Is the AI Industry Consolidating? Hugging Face CEO Says More AI Â鶹Éçs Are Looking to Be Acquired
Clément Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, a $4.5 billion startup, says he gets at least 10 acquisition requests a week and it’s “increased quite a lot.”
Key Takeaways
- AI community startup Hugging Face announced a $10 million acquisition on Thursday.
- CEO Clément Delangue says he hears from at least 10 AI startups a week that want to be acquired.
- Tech companies have been quietly acquiring AI startups recently.
Multi-billion dollar AI community startup Hugging Face its fourth acquisition to date on Thursday, a $10 million buy of a small AI collaboration platform called Argilla.
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue now says he’s getting acquisition requests from many more startups — at least 10 a week.
“This year, in particular, it has increased quite a lot,” he told .
Hugging Face lets developers openly share and test AI models that anyone can use, and has partnered with companies like and . The company to have over a million AI models, datasets, and apps on its platform.
After a $235 million August funding round, with investments from Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, and other big tech names, Hugging Face is now at $4.5 billion.
Delangue’s remarks that he sees more AI startups looking to be acquired could signal that the AI industry is , or entering the stage when competitors begin merging, per Bloomberg.
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Huge tech companies have been quietly acquiring AI startups recently. According to a February from portfolio management company Stocklytics, Apple has made the most AI startup acquisitions compared to its peers, buying 32 startups last year and at least more this year.
Google bought 21 AI startups and Meta acquired 18, per the same report.
AI stood out last year as one of the best-performing industries for unicorn, or billion-dollar valuation business, growth.
A February Morningstar report found that more than four of every 10 startups that became a unicorn in 2023 focused on AI and machine learning.
Related: Want to Start a Billion-Dollar Business? Look to These Two Industries
Key Takeaways
- AI community startup Hugging Face announced a $10 million acquisition on Thursday.
- CEO Clément Delangue says he hears from at least 10 AI startups a week that want to be acquired.
- Tech companies have been quietly acquiring AI startups recently.
Multi-billion dollar AI community startup Hugging Face its fourth acquisition to date on Thursday, a $10 million buy of a small AI collaboration platform called Argilla.
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue now says he’s getting acquisition requests from many more startups — at least 10 a week.
“This year, in particular, it has increased quite a lot,” he told .
